The present disclosure relates to image forming apparatuses and genuine product determination methods and particularly relates to a technique for determining whether or not a toner container is a genuine product.
Image forming apparatuses (for example, copiers and printers) are generally configured so that toner containers are removably attachable to the apparatuses. If a toner container attached to such an image forming apparatus runs out of toner, it is replaced with a new toner container. Furthermore, it is being promoted that used toner containers are collected and refilled with toner by manufacturers thereof and so on for reuse.
In recent years, however, non-genuine toner containers collected and refilled with toner outside a normal channel have been often used. If a non-genuine toner container is used in an image forming apparatus, the image forming apparatus not only cannot sufficiently exhibit its performance but also may cause trouble. Therefore, it is important to determine whether or not the toner container used is a genuine product.
For this reason, a technique has been proposed for determining whether or not a toner container refilled with toner is a genuine product.